Civil War II #6 (Marvel Comics)

The Lowdown

It’s the aftermath of the hero vs. hero battle, which was suddenly interrupted by another Ulysses vision. This one was of Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales) murdering Captain America. This brought the conflict to an end and everyone is questioning and wondering what to do now with this recent development.

The Breakdown

Last issue was pretty much all fighting with very little story, while this one was no fighting and all setup. The story was stronger this issue since it’s actually present in the comic, though it still doesn’t feel like we made much headway regardless. It’s more about setting things up for later in the story or for other books than having any actual excitement or character development. It’s setting up the distrust the younger generation has for the older generation that leads to the Champions series. The Guardians of the Galaxy are now stuck on Earth, setting things up for their new individual series/future arcs. It’s setting up Riri Williams’ involvement in the Marvel Universe in her new title (though frankly, she just comes out of nowhere and has barely interacted with Tony to the point where I’m questioning why he brought someone so inexperienced into this conflict). Kitty Pryde seems to be having doubts about being involved with Carol’s side of the conflict, which is odd since she hasn’t done anything in this event. Things are setting up for a confrontation next issue with everyone and something appears to be up with Ulysses. That’s it. This is a pure setup issue, developing things for later and not much else.

The characterization is still highly questionable, with most people just making the situation worse than it is (Carol, Tony, and Maria stand out in particular for escalating the problem in their actions or words) or are just basically plot devices at this point, like Ulysses. Carol almost had a good moment, which she really needed for her character. At one point, it seemed like she was regretting her actions and questioning herself as she reflected on her friends’ deaths, but then she quickly went back to being stubborn about her beliefs in the visions. The only person who had a good character moment was Captain America when he talked with Miles early on, though that’s a bit soured given the current events of Cap’s title. It’s hard to sympathize with almost anyone in this comic now, outside of the younger generation who are constantly screwed over by the adults acting like idiots or stubborn fools.

Dammit! If I only didn’t have a brain fart mid sentence and responded sooner, he wouldn’t be leaving!

The writing was better in this issue than the last. The dialogue had its moments of humanity and on rare occasions, humor, that worked well enough for characters having conservations. The pacing is much slower here than in the last issue, taking its time setting things up and having characters talk with each other (it doesn’t really go anywhere, mind you). The story flowed from page to page just fine and there were no awkward transitions anywhere in the comic. The only problem I saw with the writing was that creative team didn’t seem to understand how time and space worked–it’s the dead of night in New York in one scene, but the next shows Washington, DC mid day (and there were no time skips here. Both moments happened back to back). Other than that, I saw no real problems with the writing.

The same can be said with David Marquez’s artwork, which still looks very good. Outside of the blatant reuse of a double-page spread from last time, there’s no real issue with his art. The characters are all drawn very well, being very expressive and selling a lot of the emotion or turmoil that they’re going through. The details in the panels are nice and the layouts are strung together very well. The small nitpicks I had with the last issue seem to be resolved with more consistent inking here. In the end, all my praises for the artwork remain the same here. I just wish the story and characters were stronger to get the most out of this art.

Is It Good?

Civil War II #6 is a step up from the last issue, with some minor improvements to getting the story back on track and fixing the issues with the inking. Its main problem lies in the fact that not much was accomplished by the end, mostly just setting things up for the other books or the final two issues. It ultimately leaves the comic rather uneventful with not much to talk about. Perhaps things will pick up as we reach the final stretch.